War and Zen, Peace and Infamy
by Kitma
Summary: One day in the Paper Lantern, Warren meets a strange girl. They form an odd friendship; a hothead, and one who always keeps her cool. He dosen't realise how much she means to him intill she is taken from him. Can he overcome his past, to save her future?
1. Creamers

It was the tinkling of the door being open that brought him out of his daze. He looked up and saw the waitress seat the sole person in a both near the corner.

'Great' He thought, 'No more procrastinating.' He heaved himself out of his chair, put back on his apron and moved a couple of plates around so it sounded as though he was working. He glanced around for the other waiter, and when he didn't see one he pulled out a glass and filled it with ice and water. Well, mostly ice because by the time it went from his hand to the table, some of the ice would have melted. Oh, the joys of being a Pryo. He set it one the counter where the cooks place all of the food, wondering where all the cooks where. Usually there were three of them in the kitchen; now there was only one. He supposed it was because there was only one costumer, and only had been one since 7. He glanced at his watch. 10:03. Only 57 minutes left of his shift. He groaned and was about to go back to his reading when a woman slapped him on the head.

"No sleeping on the job!" The waitress scowled at him, and shoved a drink in his hand, motioning to the girl.

"Hey, that's your job...." His voice trailed away as she proceeded to clock out and leave the building. That left him and the cook. Great. The guy was either crazy or drunk. He went to give the girl her..whatever it was, and found himself instead giving her an odd look.

She had found the creamers, and had stacked them one on top of he other, skinny end to skinny end, fat end to fat end. The finished tower was about a foot tall. She picked up the bottom creamer, balancing the stack perfectly. The girl then put her other hand on the creamer right above it, and put the bottom one down. She repeated this process extremely quickly, and Warren was sure she was going to drop them.

'Great, more work' He thought. Fortunate for him, she had more talent then he thought and all of the creamers were in the shape of a wall.

He put down her drink and asked if she was ready to order, which he knew she was, playing around like that.

"The waitress leave? Huh, I thought normal people had heard of 7-Pep-Dew. Um, I'll have the spring rolls, and the won-ton soup."

"Uh-huh" With a raised eyebrow, he left to go give the cook the order. Then he sat back down and propped his feet up. He opens his magazine back up and continued reading.

The girl watched as he walked away. With a shrug, she reached into the bag beside her and pulled out a book.

When her food came he carried it out to her. The creamers were in a little tower, and the sugar holder was balanced on top. He set the stuff down in front of her and noticed the candle was out. He whipped out his lighter and lit it for her.

"Need anything else?" He asked, fumbling with the check.

"No, I'm good. Thanks." She watched him fumble with the order booklet, and she extended her hand to him. "May I?"

He handed her it and she expertly took the sheet off purple transfer paper, slip it in between the white and yellow sheets, write down the order and the total. She then ripped off the bottom copy, pulled out her wallet and gave him back the pad.

"You are obviously a bus boy. The purple sheet is used to transfer the order or whatever on to both of the sheets. Here's a twenty."

Warren just stared at her for a moment and then picked up her twenty and went to get her change. When he came back, the creamer had changed once again. This time it was a tower, in which the base was the shape of a Yin-Yang symbol. He handed her the change.

"You know what time it is?" He asked her, as he watched her slip a five on the table.

"Ah... 10:39. That's for you, by the way, not the waitress who dicthed me." She motioned to the five.

"Why did she leave?"

"I think it was because I asked her for a pop with Pepsi, 7-up and Mountain Dew, all mixed together. I don't think she grasped the concept." She explained with a sad shake of her head. "Better get home before my mum freaks. Nice talking to you, kid." And with that she stood up and was about to walk out when she turned around.

"You gonna be here tomorrow?" Warren nodded. "Hm. I'll be back." And with a dramatic turn, she walk out. Warren just stood there. He sighed, and began to clear off the table. 'That was interesting.'

She walked out of the Paper Lantern, and into the brisk night. Taking a deep breath, she smiled, at peace, and turned and walked home.

--

Sorry it was short, but I wanted to upload something. Not I very good start, I know, they are distant because they don't know each other. Will get better! I promise!


	2. Monster

The walk home was not long for the girl, only two and a half miles. It was short compared to the walking she did in the mountain trails while completing her training.

Wake up at four in the morning. Walk up a mountain, a big mountain. Meet your Master. Run back down the mountain, grabbing the sword you forgot. Master waits. Run back up the mountain. You end up balancing on a sword for the rest of the day. Yay, fun! Run down the mountain, stuff your face with food, and sleep. Repeat.

She laughed to herself as she thought of how her days in the summer were spent. Some were lazy days; lying in the breeze-swept grass eating rice balls, others were meditating in a secluded cave, and yet, there were days when she simply slept in late, and made cookies in the afternoon.

Summer, of course, had his own schedule. Soon, he would be moving on and dear Mr. Fall would come rolling in, knocking down leaves and sending kids off to school.

The wind, a sharp reminder of things to come, bit her arms as she passed through the glowing halo cast by the street light. No one was drving, only a few cars were parked on the side of the road. The buildings were brick, the kind of buildings that held dark alleys as mortar, a labyrinth one would not want to get lost in. A few feet out of the glowing halo was one of these said alleys.

She took a big breath, and stood up straight, facing the cold, but didn't seem to notice the moving shadows in the darkness. In the alley lay a dumpster, an item commonly found in alleys. And in this dumpster was a man with shrewd eyes and toned pecks, an item not commonly found in dumpters.

He watched her pass, much like a hungry wolf would watch a sheep. Well, more like a perverted fox. Perhaps it was because it was cold, or that the wind would carry the scream further, but for whatever reason, he let his prey go. He slipped out of the dumpster and peered around the alley wall. When she was a ways up, he ran to the next alley, and waited. He did this over and over. When he ran out of alleys , for she had turned onto a residential street, he used cars and trees, mainting a fixed distance at all times.

She turned a corner, onto a much older road, at the end of the main row of houses. It was partly covered by trees, and leaves littered the ground. At first, he thought this would harm his ability to follow her. However, upon closer inspection, she was listening to music, and singing rather badly. A ways ahead, lay a long driveway far up a hill, which led to a house, perched on a even steeper hill.

The man hung back at the end of the driveway. The porch was a wrap-around and there were steps leading from the bottom of the second hill all the way up to it. The path seemed to curve around the base of the hill slightly, and then veer off into the woods. A total of thirty-eight steps were what separated him from her as she reached the porch, bathed in yellow light.

A furry mass fell from the sky, landing on the doormat. He jumped, landing on a twig. She didn't hear. Said furry mass meowed and was picked up by the girl, who proceeded to call him, ''My widdle furry kitty''. She took off her shoes and opened the door, letting the light escape into the dark night.

''I'm home!'' She called.

''Welcome home, dear. Did you do anything interesting?'' The voice came from the kitchen, and was soon followed by her mother.

The woman came and gave her a hug, and a peck on the check.

''I made dessert, but since you already ate...''

''Oh, no! I could eat more!'' She ran to the kitchen and pulled out a purple glass from the fridge.

Her mother laughed, sitting down at the table with her.

''So, Ant, what happened today? You seem awfully peppy.''

''Well,'' She said between mouthfuls of food, ''I went to the stables and worked a while there. Rode Hamlet for a bit, and then took him out on a trail, did some jumping. Then I went shopping, bought some more candles and some food for Monster, he was running low. Walked around town a bit, ran into the Stronghold kid. Literally, and he fell over. Boy, was he ever surprised. And then I went to the Cafe and studied, before walking over and having dinner at the Paper Lantern.''

''I heard about that place. The Paper Lantern, I mean. Many happy people walking out of there. How was it?''

''Food was good. Waiter was horrible. Busboy was cool, though. I freaked him out, with the creamer trick.''

Her mother laughed, the sound filling up the house. The cat jumped up on her lap and looked at Ant's purple cup.

''No, Monster, no banana pudding with rum for you! Dad going to be home tonight?''

''No, he is still at the firehouse. Doing a double shift so he take off work when you go to competition.'

The stomping of feet could be heard on the stairs, followed by a large bang, as the owner jumped from the fourth step. The elephant came into the kitchen and gave them a big hug. He went through the cupboards, pulled out a jar of SpaghettiOs and a fork and left, skipping happily away.

''It's scary sometimes, having him as my brother.''

''I heard that!'' Came a distant shout.

''Thanks for the dessert mom, I'm going up to my room now.'' She placed the dish in the sink, and walked up the stairs, aware of her mom's eyes on her. She walked up another flight of stairs and slid open the door to her room. Kneeling down, she closed the door behind her, swinging her legs down to the floor.

She sighed, flopping down on her bed, glad her brother wasn't around. His favorite thing to do was to shout out the colors he sees to you.

''Did we meet a boy? I think I am seeing a bit of purple! Naughty, naughty!''

''Did we break mom's vase? I see a dark yellow in you! And a bit of light yellow! Being a bit cowardly, aren't we?''

She knew what he would see. Yellow and blue. Confusion and sadness. Confused about why she had no friends, sad for the same reason. He might be able to see emotions, but he wasn't much help with them, unlike her mother. She knew her mother worried about her, it was only natural for a mother to worry about her daughter, but she didn't want her to know. Too bad that reading emotions was her mother's thing.

She longed for the temples filled with wise monks, and rock gardens where one could sit and meditate to their heart's content.


	3. Keys, or lack thereof

War and Zen 3

A/N -Thank you for all the reviews and Alerts!

A short chapter to make sure you all still love me!

Throw ideas at me, I have a plot, but you guys know what you want!

He turned and walked back to the cash register of The Paper Lantern. The door opened, and out of habit, he turned to look, even though he knew it was just the girl leaving. She paused, and then set off at a brisk pace to the left of the restaurant. He shook his head. No one lived within two miles of The Paper Lantern. It was in the business district of town; the closest living development was the high rise apartments for the old folks. Even that was down the road a bit. Why anyone would want to walk over two miles in the dark, passing hot-spots for gangs, he had no idea. He just hoped she didn't get herself killed on the way home. She was interesting.

Opening up the cash register, he began to tally up the days sales. It was a boring, tedious job, that didn't get him paid any extra. But it kept the other employees from yelling at him. His mother also appreciated the gesture, usually mentioning how mature he was getting. It helped her tone down her disappointment when he got kicked out of school for fighting. It's not like he went out and picked fights, kids picked fights with him. The next thing you know, he lit up and they have to call in ScanDisk to wipe the memories of all the witnesses.

He finished, and closed the door with a bit more force than necessary. He glanced at the time, 11:57. His mother would worry about were he was, worrying that he might have got up and left, like the other man in his family. Battle. Dammit, how could he just leave them! When he was just a kid, not even two years old! Warren never knew him much, but he didn't have to. Everyone seemed to know the story of Barron Battle. And they all loved to shove it in his face. Once they knew who he was, they turned on him. Why couldn't they just leave him alone, let him forget about him, leave his memories of him to rot in Barron's jail cell. He released his grip on the counter, he had not realized that he had been gripping it, and the blood pounded back into his white fingers.

He glanced out of the kitchen into the restaurant. Seeing that the strange girls table still needed to be cleaned he grabbed a rag and walked over. He looked at the table and a smile tugged at his the sides of his mouth. Ten creamers, stacked in two towers, five on each side, were holding up a straw. On top of this straw was the sugar box in the center, and then an additional creamer at each end of the straw. He lifted the box of sugar up and the whole contraption fell. He tossed the creamers in the bowl and picked up her plate. In the sauce, written with a chopstick was the Chinese character for Balance. Laughing softly to him self, he carried the dishes to the kitchen, picked up his keys, turned off the light, set the alarm, walk out and close the door, check his pockets for his keys, swore, realized that his keys were inside, groan loudly and turned to see if anyone was looking. It was a dark night and cold, so of course no one was out. Popping the top part of the bike consol up, he gripped two wires firmly. A spark, a roar, and the bike turn on, purring like a lion.

The roads were empty, more or less. All around him were empty parking lots dotted with the orange glow of the lights. Neon sings of the motels in town glowed, and the parking light at the end of the street turned red. He cursed, slowing hi bike to a stop. No cars to the right, no cars to the left. A lone car sat in front of him, his blinker displaying his interest to turn left. He sighed, and looked at the school. School, soon he will be going to school again. To Sky High. Well it could be worse, he thought, I could have to learn useless stuff. He remembered something, someone that his mother used to talk about. She was an old friend at school, and when she was labeled as a sidekick she turned the decider to stone! His mother talked about her often whenever she talked about her life in high school, which wasn't that often. Supposedly she lived in Norway. What an odd place to live.

By now he was home. Pulling into the drive, he let out the clutch and throttled the beast, causing it to stall and die. Trying not to make that much noise, he walked around the house and opened up his window. After he climbed in he striped down to his boxers, threw his clothes on the pile in his closet, yanked back his covers and slipped into to his bed.

The next day greeted him in the form of waves of clear, luminescent annoyance that fluttered through his heavy dark curtains. He groaned and rolled over to avoid the light, and instead fell off.  
His head ache as he got ready for work was a perfect mole hill to the mountain of frustrations at his job.

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